PALE SUN – PALE WORLD

You can just about make out the small disk of the sun. The early morning pale far-northern early spring sun, reflecting in the pond.

My pond. For which I am so grateful and full of thanksgiving that God worked my life out this way, and that there is such beauty to see.

I’m going to miss this world.

That “pale sun” haunted me all day. I moved my books and my studying to the window that overlooks the pond, but I was very distracted from my work.

So, my work paled too. All the important things I thought I had to accomplish.

They say the beauty of Heaven is so overwhelmingly and satisfyingly beautiful that we will not miss the beauty of this earth.

So, I’m working on understanding that.

Sludge – I’m held down by sludge. Prepare for a “data dump” this week. I’m getting rid of all the intangible thoughts that are weighing me down, all the things that caught my attention, all the photos that illustrate what had held my attention, for a while; it just feels like something I have to do. To free up my thinking.

Here’s the Lesson. You can’t think “Up” when you have so many distractions keeping you “down.” What is it that I really care about?

Remember the old Annette Funicello Walt Disney series called “Follow Your Heart“? (The Horsemasters.)

Annette played a kind of city girl who loved to ride horses, but when she went to an equestrian camp and took lessons with a friend, she found that she didn’t have the courage to jump over the fences.

Try as she might, she could only gallop up to the fence, and then to our great disappointment, she just couldn’t complete the jump. We were all cheering her on. It was a Walt Disney production. Surely she will overcome her fears in the end!

Well, her best friend finally thought of something.

She said, “You know you love to ride, you know you’d love to jump over that fence. Next time, as you approach that fence, just throw your heart over that fence first, and follow your heart.”

And of course, it worked.

Where is my heart?

What you love you will treasure. And Jesus told us “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

With your treasure in front of you, everything else on the side, everything else behind you, will seem very pale. Even a sun. Even the whole world.

A passing, pale world is not worth the price of one human heart and soul. That’s what my pond with the pale sun taught me.